Imam al-Suyuti’s Teachers

Imam Suyuti’s Teachers

The numbers given to women scholars are indicated with (parenthesis) while those of men scholars with [square brackets]. If a name appears as ?al-Shihab?, ?al-Taj?, or the like, then it means ?Shihab al-Din?, ?Taj al-Din?, etc.

A big number [of scholars] in the Egyptian Lands, the Hijaz, and Halab have given me Ijazas. I have compiled a huge bibliographical dictionary containing the names of those who taught me, gave me Ijazas, or composed poetry about me. They added up to about 600 persons.

The teachers of Hadith-Transmission (Shuyukh al-riwaya) among them consist of four classes (tabaqat).

Then Suyuti gives short descriptions of the four categories of Hadith-Transmission he was taught by the four classes of his teachers. Then he dismisses the fourth since he did not learn much from them (did not receive Hadith through them, that is). After that, Suyuti says:

These are the names of my teachers (Shaykhs) who belong to the first three classes, each given along with a summarized biographical note:

The ?bibliographical notes?, which I did not translate below, contain mainly the dates of birth and death and the names of some of their famous teachers.

So, these are 130(?) ones, who are my Shaykhs in Riwaya [of Hadith] who provide the shortest chains of transmission (`awali shuyukhi), among those belonging to the [first three] different classes (tabaqat). [It is worth noting that] al-Hafiz Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi documented the names of his Shaykhs (mashyakhatahu) and did not mention in it except less than a 100 persons.

As for the fourth class (tabaqa) among those whom I heard from [received Hadith through] or has given me an Ijaza? they are more than 200 persons. I refrained from mentioning them here due to the lack of any need to do so, since I do not report from them anything [any Hadith]. To the contrary, in most of the cases of Riwaya, I am equal to them in degree (musawi lahum fi al-daraja). [Anyway] they are all mentioned in the Dictionary (al-Mu`jam) [presumably, al-Suyuti means his large dictionary of Shaykhs, Hatib layl wa jarif Sayl.].

NOTES

1The book was edited by E. M. Sartain, who published it as a volume of her two-volume PhD thesis titled Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. It was published by Cambridge University Press (1975).

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